January started with my final sign off from the Surgeon, he is super happy with progress so I have been unleashed, albeit sensibly. I was increasingly feeling more confident with the foot and started to increase the number of days and volume of riding. No proper hills as yet but back into the gravel and some mtbing as well. All nice and slowly and sensible and by the end of hte month I was off all the meds and starting to ride completely pain free > whoop whoop.

 

I had a number of Alto Cycle Tours events that I had other people taking for me but I was feeling chipper enough to lead the Baby Roubaix and indeed, even The Ton, an easy 160 km ride, but it’s still 160 kms! All went swimmingly and we had a great Velo Vino in very very hot conditions.

 

The random weather condition had meant that Haven growth went mad, thankfully I had sprayed all the track prior to my surgery but the trail corridor growth was rampant, so I slowly started to get this under control, buzz up a couple of random trees down and restart the spraying regime. Great to see more and more families out enjoying the park.

 

Candy is getting serious about her marathon training and has also gotten a new gravel bike and out-blinged me > she scored a very nicely specced bike in her size for a very good price. She is looking forward to commuting more and hitting the hills and gravel on a bike that fits her. She has entered the 10k series as well, which she is enjoying.

 

Life is good and is getting back to normalcy post surgery and about time too as Belgium and London is looming and it’s going to hurt to get cobble fit in 60 days!

 

Had one of those “didn’t realise until it was gone” moments and no not the loves lost or mourning a loved one type epiphany this is all supercalifragilisticexpialidocious news. It would seem that I had a constant dull pain for at least six years until I had my surgery. Now that I have pretty much fully recovered from the operation, the thing I notice the most is the absence of a constant sensation of the bad toes > it feels so good and with cycling now it not about soft pedalling all the time and hoping I don’t end up in tears on the side of the road, now it’s about pushing down on the pedals and looking for power instead of pain.

 

And now the last month in glorious colour pictures >> https://photos.app.goo.gl/uoputR6HL33Z5jfb8

The Beautiful People

And I don’t want you and I don’t need you
Don’t bother to resist, or I’ll beat you
It’s not your fault that you’re always wrong
The weak ones are there to justify the strong
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
It’s all relative to the size of your steeple
You can’t see the forest for the trees
You can’t smell your own shit on your knees
There’s no time to discriminate
Hate every motherfucker
That’s in your way
Hey you, what do you see?
Something beautiful or something free?
Hey, you, are you trying to be mean?
If you live with apes man, it’s hard to be clean
The worms will live in every host
It’s hard to pick which one they eat the most
The horrible people, the horrible people
It’s as anatomic as the size of your steeple
Capitalism has made it this way
Old-fashioned fascism will take it away
Hey you, what do you see?
Something beautiful or something free?
Hey, you, are you trying to be mean?
If you live with apes man, it’s hard to be clean
There’s no time to discriminate
Hate every motherfucker
That’s in your way
The beautiful people
The beautiful people (aahh)
The beautiful people
The beautiful people (aahh)
The beautiful people
The beautiful people (aahh)
The beautiful people
The beautiful people (aahh)
Hey you, what do you see?
Something beautiful or something free?
Hey, you, are you trying to be mean?
If you live with apes man, it’s hard to be clean
Hey you, what do you see?
Something beautiful or something free?
Hey, you, are you trying to be mean?
If you live with apes man, it’s hard to be clean
The beautiful people
The beautiful people
The beautiful people
The beautiful people
The beautiful people
The beautiful people
The beautiful people
The beautiful people
The Beautiful People